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The porch that was on the front of the house was put on around 1910. We discovered that the porch had

had at least four incarnations by the time we got there. The first porch was changed after 1868 and before

1880, and only involved the parapet, changing the balusters to posts and jig-sawed pine trees. The third

porch raised the flat roof. The fourth porch completely changed the appearance, raised the roof more,

added 18 inches on all sides and put on enclosed railings and turned porch posts.

 

The porch addition contained a bathroom and bedroom. It was put on before 1930 by the McFarlands

and remodeled in the 1940s by Walter and Robert Voss. It was used for convalescence by Daisy

McFarland and Margaret Voss. It had to be removed to recreate the original porch.

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Here's the house in 2002 showing the porch addition on the left side.

bedroom addition on left

Inside bedroom addition

This is the bathroom part of the porch addition from outside

tub and toilet in bathroom addition

Looking at the bathroom addition from the bedroom

tub and sink in the bathroom addition

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We removed the porch roof first, which unveiled several interesting discoveries. The ledger from the original

porch was still in place, nailed on by square nails. One board from the roof of the original porch also

remained, still nailed to the side of the porch (1X4 T&G yellow pine). The ledger went clear around the

house and the roof boards were on both sides, East and West. A paint ghost remained with the outline of

the original roof beam. These ghosts and the inside corner boards had some good samples of original

colors (top color on beam ghost). With this information we were able to determine the exact roof pitch,

roof length and overhang dimensions.

removing the old porch roof

ghost of the original beam, remaining porch roof board and original color (top of beam ghost)

original ledger with square nails, corner boards with more original color

Ron taking down porch

most of porch gone

all of porch gone

Alex, Fred and Reese, our highly trained professionals

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Next we recreated recreated the deck. There was still quite a bit of the original porch foundation, so we knew

the height of the original deck. Since it was the same as the existing porch we were able to narrow the

existing sub-structure and reuse it.

The porch deck is usually the first thing to deteriorate, so I decided to use a composite to eliminate rot. We

used a product called Tendura Plank for the decking. This is a composite material, but has characteristics

and appearance similar to wood. When sawn it produces waste that looks like sawdust, not plastic.It

comes in 1x6 T&G and is not textured except for a slight roughening of the surface. Time will tell if this

was a good decision.

 

 

 

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When recreating the porch we used a combination of paint ghosts and remaining pieces of the original structure

for the structural measurements and many hours on the computer enhancing and blowing up our old pictures

for trim and detail. I was able to find good quality clear redwood from 100 year old salvaged pickle vats.

 

When sawn it produces a purplish red sawdust as good heart redwood does. When working with it we always

tasted salt on our lips. I've read that paint doesn't hold well on salty surfaces, so I hope it's OK. At least it should

discourage wood eating insects and mold. I though it was a reasonable trade-off to get vertical grained clear

redwood which is pretty much unavailable today. Even at the astronomical prices for clear redwood most of it

is slash grained.

 

Because the split posts were made of 2X12 material we were concerned that they might twist, so we used

steel channel on the edges for strength and stability. This is wrapped around the redwood and painted, and

it looks like part of the wood with a small reveal at the edge.

 

We found a piece of 1X4 pine beaded board which I believe is from the original porch roof and had new

boards milled using that pattern. In general I've been able to distinguish  old exterior pieces from new by

the species of wood. If it's redwood it was later. The original house was all yellow pine.

Fred laying out the porch mock-up

we did a mock-up of the post, trim and battlements and tacked it up to visually check

a completed corner post. iron channel on sides for strength

battlements: redwood from recycled pickle vats

we poured a concret wall behind the brick porch foundation for strength

me and the new porch

East side: faux door on left

almost done

 

 

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faux door on East side

Fred likes to leave coins in the wall for future finds

front door and french door

leveling the front door

old colors

old colors